Date of Award

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Gregory Mocko

Committee Member

Dr. Nathan McNeese

Committee Member

Dr. Cameron Turner

Abstract

This thesis seeks to establish and define the individual, the team as an entity, and qualify various metrics to predict team performance. When several individuals come together, they form a team that is often capable of designing and developing concepts beyond the individual on their own by methods of task dispersion, goal orientation, communication, and more. With these teams comes growth and increased performance leading to more efficient processes and better metrics by which performance may be measured. To achieve this, 34 engineering students in the AerosPACE senior design program, which lasted two semesters, were asked to complete surveys in a longitudinal study spanning four survey periods. The students were assigned to four teams, composed of multiple universities, to design a small scale unmanned aerial system. These surveys evaluated the student’s personality, social, technical, and ingenuity skills. The students were asked to rate themselves, their peers, and their overall team as an entity on these personality traits and skills. In addition to this, students were asked to evaluate their team’s internal health and team performance metrics from a secondary and first-person viewpoint.

This study establishes a hierarchical structure to predict performance based on skills, interest levels, and personality traits both on an individual and team level – named the MIST-C OCEAN Hierarchy. The four teams follow Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development using both internal and external performance metrics. Teams were also found to have improved their understanding of and predictive capabilities of their teammates by approximately 60% on average.

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